Need help with my crappy photography... Any advice? Help a newbie! :o)

wvinchic

Hi! I have been trying to photograph my Toned Morgans for a while now. I am getting better, but there is still room for improvement. I need different lighting. Right now I am using 3 100W Regular Bulbs. I've looked at others but since I have no experience in photography whatsoever, it is mind boggling! I've tried Reveals but I get a nasty red cast that I just can't color correct out without destroying the other colors. Could ya tell me which one you like the best and what I can do to improve upon my pics?

TIA!

Stacy

sinin1

I like the last



have you tried lower wattage on your lights? 60 W or 40 W

nwcs

The last is best. I recommend experimenting with two lights instead of three. Or using 3 lower wattage lights to avoid overexposing the coin. Also try softening the light by putting a piece of paper or something over the light (where safe) to diffuse the light. This will help make the lighting better for toned coins. It doesn't bring out the luster necessarily but better represents the coin. Also experiment with the white balance on the camera and exposure compensation.

tlhoy

I would suggest using a two or three 40 watt Reveal light bulbs.

Glenn

cosmicdebris

Checkout THIS THREAD.

wvinchic

Thanks for your info! I will try lower wattage lights and less lights. I also read that article. I may play around with what they said too. My problem is, I am trying to do a lot with a little. I don't have the extra cash right now to go out and buy lots of equipment. Right now, I am using three desk lamps and a tiny tripod. I've been thinnking about buying a new digital camera, but I just got my Nikon Coolpix 3100 Last Christmas. I just can't justify spending $500 on a new digital SLR camera. Guess I'll just have to start saving my extra change!

Thanks again!

Stacy

RYK

Here's a thread that I started when I was getting started. Your early pics are far better than mine were. Good luck!

tlhoy

You don't need an expensive camera to take good pictures.
I use a $60 Ricoh 4200 camera & it takes great pictures.
Don't get me wrong, I'd kill for a $500 camera but I can't afford it.

Glenn

Dog97

The last 1 is the best & I don't have anything useful to contribute on improving it.

nwcs

<< <i>Thanks for your info! I will try lower wattage lights and less lights. I also read that article. I may play around with what they said too. My problem is, I am trying to do a lot with a little. I don't have the extra cash right now to go out and buy lots of equipment. Right now, I am using three desk lamps and a tiny tripod. I've been thinnking about buying a new digital camera, but I just got my Nikon Coolpix 3100 Last Christmas. I just can't justify spending $500 on a new digital SLR camera. Guess I'll just have to start saving my extra change!

Thanks again!

Stacy >>

I have the same camera and almost the same setup. Here is one of my favorite pictures I took with the setup I described.

K6AZ

If you can spend about $130, I would highly recommend getting this stand and using two GE Reveal 60w bulbs:

Testrite CS2 Copystand with lights

JoesMaName

I agree with nwcs, I think the last picture is best and try using indirect lighting.

SilverDollarMan

<< <i>You don't need an expensive camera to take good pictures.
I use a $60 Ricoh 4200 camera & it takes great pictures.
Don't get me wrong, I'd kill for a $500 camera but I can't afford it.

Glenn >>



What is most important megapic's or zoom? ie...a 5.0 meg w/3 zoom or 4.0 w/6 zoom?
Thx

Purple73

I think the Photos are fine......They need to be Bigger by about another 35%-40%

Also......have you tried the Angled glass technique?

tlhoy

What is most important megapic's or zoom? ie...a 5.0 meg w/3 zoom or 4.0 w/6 zoom?

For coins I'd say the 5 meg. w/3 zoom!
For spying on your neighbors I'd say the 4 meg. w/6 zoom!

Glenn

ccrdragon

On the angled glass technique - do you shoot thru the angled glass or shine the lights thru the angled glass?

Purple73

<< <i>What is most important megapic's or zoom? ie...a 5.0 meg w/3 zoom or 4.0 w/6 zoom?

For coins I'd say the 5 meg. w/3 zoom!
For spying on your neighbors I'd say the 4 meg. w/6 zoom!

Glenn >>




Perfect for Your neighbor spying fetish:

wvinchic

To make the pictures more "user friendly," I made them smaller. So, in short, I am not worried about the size, but thank you for the info. Also, I have not tried the angled glass technique yet. But, I am going to try.

"What is most important megapic's or zoom? ie...a 5.0 meg w/3 zoom or 4.0 w/6 zoom?"

You are going to get plenty of pixels and detail with a 4.0 (that's what I use). I wouldn't go any smaller than that if you can help it. I think Macro capability is VERY important. Well, more like essential, of course.


Stacy

tlhoy

To make the pictures more "user friendly," I made them smaller.

The heck wiyh that. Post BIG pictures! We need to see the coin.

photoman

If you follow the Coin World articles on digital photography you'll be way ahead of the game. One of the keys though is that wattage isn't as important as softness is when it comes to lighting. I use 420w bulbs but soften them with either ground glass filters or a soft box like the articles mention. One more thing to keep in mind is whether or not you want the background to be exposed correctly. For my work, I don't care if the background is exposed correctly since I delete it out for use on the web or in a catalog so I spot meter the coins which makes them always expose correctly regardless if I have the coin on a white or black background. Most digital camers have the ability to spot meter.

Doug
ANR

wvinchic

The heck wiyh that. Post BIG pictures! We need to see the coin.


I wasn't asking about the detail of the coin silly! But if you want biiiiiiiig pictures... try this one on for size...



That big enough for ya, big guy??

Oh look! You can see how dirty my scanner was/is!!!!!


Stacy

mgoodm3

Raw coins are easier to get good color than slabbed. The first one you showed looks raw. Here's how I might take it's pic. Put the light high up over the coin. Pretend like the coins is a mirror and move around until you see the strongest light at the coin. The color should light up. That's where you want your camera to be.

tlhoy

That big enough for ya, big guy??

Now that's big!

Glenn

wvinchic

lol, Thought you might like that!

Stacy

K6AZ

You don't really want to get into a physical image size war do you?

K6AZ

PS: And I feel sorry for anyone trying to open this thread with less than a very high speed connection - that image is 26mb!

K6AZ

What the heck, we're snowed in and I'm bored.

SilverDollarMan

That is really childish, some pps got better things to do! Like it or not.

wvinchic

Ummm, we were just having a bit of fun. Sorry if it was too childish for you!


If you thought it was a waste of time, why did you take the time to reply? Seems like you should have had something better to do with your time


Stacy - The childish one who is a Stay at Home Mommy and has DSL with of course a constant connection to the net.

K6AZ

Stacy, he must have missed my smileys!

Seriously, you saved that image as a BMP file. If you save it to JPG and use some compression, should be able to get it around 2mb. Probably still a pain for a dialupper though.

GoYankees

AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!! WE'RE GONNA CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Actually, I have better things to do than watch a meteor storm bombarding a Morgan Dollar.

wvinchic

I saved it as a jpg with a "7 medium" jpeg compression in Photoshop. I had to do that to get it under the 1 mb image size restriction in my photobucket account. I scanned it at 600 dpi and decreased it to 525 to also help me get under the 1 mb restriction. I am sure you know how all of that works, but here is the same image with only 72 dpi and "8 high" compression of course meaning a larger file size (100% resolution for a computer monitor.) It is 5.75 inches wide.




I was just being really stupid to show how giant I could get a pic.

That other party pooper must have missed my smiley's too. I couldn't resist a little jab

Stacy

GoYankees

Stacy, you can change the pics by editing the mega-sized pics in your earlier posts.

BTW You did see my smileys right?

tlhoy

<< <i>That is really childish, some pps got better things to do! Like it or not. >>

K6AZ

That's strange, I saved the image to play with it and it was saved as a 26mb bitmap. I thought it loaded fast for a file of that size.

wvinchic

That's what I did. I just yanked it into photoshop and decreased the dpi to 72. That's what gave me the normal size pic of the sac. If ya look close, you can see all of my wonderful lint in the same exact spots! LOL Or did I not get what you were saying?

And yes, I did see your smileys!


That humor "installer" is HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!!

wvinchic

That's odd... When I right clicked, saved picture as, then saved it to my desktop, it still read as a 963 kb jpeg to me. But, when I open it in Photoshop without the compression, it is 26.5 megs. When I save it as a 24 bit bmp, the size is 27mb. How did you save it and open it?

I am curious.


BTW, I have a cat that looks just like yours. His name is Staley and he weighs about 20 lbs!

Stacy

SilverDollarMan

I just had to reply.....I got high speed, some don't and we r trying to learn!

Here u go:Funny Board

Gonfunko

All I can say after opening this thread is thank God for DSL!

RotatedRainbows

When I take pictures of toned coins I always have my camera hooked up to a 13" TV so I get a better idea of what the photo will look like before I take it. It allows you to make adjustments to lighting angle before so you get a better picture.

lordmarcovan

Crappy, huh?


You're a little farther up the curve than I am.